Te'o to Couric: My emotions were real

By Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN

Updated 3:25 PM ET, Thu January 24, 2013

Notre Dame star Manti Te'o14 photos

Notre Dame star Manti Te'o – The sports world and the Internet are abuzz as Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o says he was the victim of a "sick joke" that resulted in the creation of an inspirational story that had him overcoming the death of an online girlfriend at the same time he lost his grandmother. Here, Te'o leaves the field after a 42-14 loss against Alabama in the 2013 Discover BCS National Championship game on Monday, January 7, in Miami Gardens, Florida. See more photos of Te'o:

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Notre Dame star Manti Te'o14 photos

Notre Dame star Manti Te'o – Te'o makes a play against the Pittsburgh Panthers at Notre Dame Stadium on November 3, 2012.

Notre Dame star Manti Te'o – Te'o, a Heisman Trophy finalist, answers questions from reporters during an informal news gathering at the Marriott Marquis Hotel on December 7, 2012, in New York City a day before the presentation of the winner.

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Notre Dame star Manti Te'o14 photos

Notre Dame star Manti Te'o – Heisman finalists quarterback Collin Klein, left, of the Kansas State Wildcats, quarterback Johnny Manziel, center, of the Texas A&M University Aggies and linebacker Te'o speak during a news conference before the 78th Heisman Trophy Presentation at the Marriott Marquis on December 8, 2012, in New York City.

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Notre Dame star Manti Te'o14 photos

Notre Dame star Manti Te'o – Te'o takes the field as part of senior introductions before a game against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at Notre Dame Stadium on November 17, 2012.

Notre Dame star Manti Te'o – Te'o attempts to make a play on the ball against the Alabama Crimson Tide during the 2013 Discover BCS National Championship game on January 7 in Miami Gardens, Florida.

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Notre Dame star Manti Te'o – Te'o looks to the scoreboard during a game against the Brigham Young University Cougars at Notre Dame Stadium on October 20, 2012.

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Photos: Notre Dame star Manti Te'o – Te'o tackles Trey Miller of Navy during their game in Dublin, Ireland, on September 1, 2012.

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Notre Dame star Manti Te'o – Te'o is interviewed by ESPN after the game between the Oklahoma Sooners and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in Norman, Oklahoma, on October 27. The Fighting Irish defeated the Sooners 30-13.

Story highlights

Te'o insists during interview that his "feelings, the pain, the sorrow -- that was all real"

Father breaks into tears, says despite speculation, his son is "not a liar. He's a kid."

Notre Dame star linebacker Manti Te'o acknowledged to ABC's Katie Couric that he maintained the illusion of his dead girlfriend in the weeks after he received a call claiming that Lennay Kekua and her death were hoaxes.

It wasn't that teo was lying, said spokesman Mathew Hiltzik, who also reportedly represents Couric. Rather, he was still trying to determine exactly what had happened after learning a woman he thought was his girlfriend may never have existed.

During the interview, set to air on Couric's syndicated show Thursday, the Heisman Trophy runner-up said he mentioned Kekua and her death to reporters after receiving a December 6 phone call from someone he thought was Kekua, saying she was not dead.

"Katie, put yourself in my situation. I, my whole world told me that she died on September 12. Everybody knew that. This girl, who I committed myself to, died on September 12," Te'o said, according to clips released on the ABC News website.

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Te'o has said he believed Kekua, whom he thought was his girlfriend despite never meeting her face to face, had died of leukemia on September 12 after a car accident left her hospitalized.

"Now I get a phone call on December 6, saying that she's alive and then I'm going be put on national TV two days later. And to ask me about the same question. You know, what would you do?" Te'o said, according to clips of the interview.

Couric said she believes Te'o sincerely thought he was having a relationship with Kekua. Couric said she heard voice mail messages on Te'o's phone, allegedly from Kekua, and even saw his phone bill.

"There were multiple calls to this number, where he would stay on the phone for hours," Couric told ABC's "World News with Diane Sawyer" on Wednesday.

Te'o denied reveling in the attention he received for playing so outstandingly on the gridiron after suffering such devastating personal losses.

"I think, for me, the only thing that I basked in was that I had an impact on people; that people turned to me for inspiration. And I think that was the only thing I focused on," the Hawaii-born Mormon said. "My story, I felt, was a guy who in times of hardship and in times of trial, held strong to his faith, held strong to his family, and I felt that was my story."

Te'o's parents, Brian and Ottilia Te'o, were on hand for the interview. Couric said she believes they were as stunned as their son when they found out Kekua didn't exist. Te'o's mother talked to the woman many times on the phone, and his father texted biblical passages to the woman and discussed them with her, Couric said.

Last week, Te'o said, however, that he had lied to his dad because he was embarrassed to admit he was in love with a woman he'd never laid eyes on.

"I knew that -- I even knew that it was crazy that I was with somebody that I didn't meet," he told ESPN. "And that alone, people find out that this girl who died I was so invested in, and I didn't meet her as well."

Asked his response to those who say his son is a liar who "manipulated the truth, really for personal gain," Te'o's father gave a tearful reply, according to ABC.

"When (people) hear the facts, they'll know," Te'o told ESPN last week. "They'll know that there is no way that I could be part of this."

Nine days after the Alabama Crimson Tide dismantled the Fighting Irish in the college football national championship, Deadspin broke the story that Kekua didn't exist. The oft-irreverent sports news website has reported that a man named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo is involved in the scam and that he created a fake Twitter account for Kekua.

Deadspin's Timothy Burke, co-author of the story, said friends and relatives of Tuiasosopo's said he was "doing the Lennay Kekua fake online profile for several years and that he's caught other people in his trap, but that they caught on way earlier than Manti Te'o did."

Manti Te'o's Twitter bio reads: "Life is a storm.. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes." The storm has arrived.